An Overly Cynical Post

Thus far, I must say that I've been disappointed with Kindred (and not just because I dislike science fiction. It is difficult to account for personal taste). Small things irked me, and upon asking myself why they irked me, I discovered several stylistic elements that got in the way of my greater enjoyment. Please bear with me. After years and years of being pounded with creative writing classes, I simply cannot control myself.

1. Characters. Butler's characters are flat and dull, verging on stereotypical. We've got the happy couple, a portrait of bi-racial marital bliss. The fact that Dana is black and Kevin is white draws a blunt and obvious line between them and Dana's ancestors in the South, who are scandalized by bi-racial marriage. Dana and Kevin's relationship seems to scream, "Look how accepting we are in 1976! We are good! You people in the 1800s are bad! Shame on you!" It's a heavy-handed and inelegant contrast. Not everyone in the 20th century is quite so accepting. Not everyone in the 19th century was so discriminatory. We're well acquainted with this story of white vs. black, of good guy vs. bad guy. But it's more complicated than that.

Then there's the innocent youth, mistreated by his parents. Rufus may be naughty sometimes, and gets into trouble, but aw, he's just so misunderstood. 

Rufus's parents, the Bad White People, represent another stereotype. Yes, stereotypes usually exist because they have some grain of truth in them, but I want more from these characters. We know they're rude, petty, sometimes cruel. Okay, what else?

Rufus's parents and the other Southern whites are so uniformly unpleasant that of course every black person must be good. This distinction, if you'll forgive the pun, is too black-and-white. I want my preconceptions challenged in a grown-up book. So far I feel as though Butler is working with historical facts that are no more complex or nuanced than the ones I worked with in elementary-school American history. White=bad. Black=good. But is there more?

Maybe Butler's characters will come alive a bit more as I keep reading, but if I'm 100 pages in and the characters are still two-dimensional, well...

2. And then there's the dialogue. There's just so much of it. And very little of it is compelling. Exchanges between Dana and Kevin are particularly irritating. They all seem to be variations of:

Kevin: Oh my gosh! Are you all right?
Dana: Yeah. But I have to do ______! (something potentially life-threatening/ unpleasant)
Kevin: Don't do it! It's dangerous!
Dana: I have to.
Kevin: Okay.

3. The time-traveling thing. I was willing to suspend my disbelief and allow Dana to travel into the past. But apparently she can also take items and even other people back with her? What if she somehow could bring all of 1976 Los Angeles back to the 1810s? What are the parameters, the rules, that govern this kind of time travel?

4. This supposed metatextuality we touched upon in class. I don't think the fact that Dana and Kevin are writers makes Kindred a text that reflects upon itself. Maybe Butler made these characters writers because she is a writer, and it is the easiest and most interesting occupation she could think of. After all, write what you know, right?

Perhaps some of my problems with the novel will be resolved by simply continuing to read it. Perhaps I'll grow to dislike it more. But for now, these things get in the way of my reading, and prevent me from getting to whatever deeper meaning I'm supposed to find.